Virgin Mobile India Announces Online Shopping Facility

Virgin Mobile India has announced that customers can now buy Virgin Mobile branded products and services online. Customers taking advantage of online shopping will also be offered additional talk time, extra messages as well as other freebies.

Speaking on the launch of their online platform, M. A. Madhusudan, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile India said, “We are confident that we will receive a positive response on this initiative and are hopeful of acquiring a significant portion of our customer base through our online channel over the next two years.”

For the delivery of the ordered products Virgin Mobile has tied up with Blue Dart.

Process to purchase products online:

Customers would need to visit the Virgin Mobile website (www.virginmobile.in) and select the handset, plan, their free gift and number of their choice

Fill an online application (CAF) form and facilitate the payment by a debit card or credit card

Post the transaction, handsets will be delivered to the customer within 24 - 48 hours and the requisite documents for proof of identity will be collected in person

The connection will get activated post verification

Customers can now log on to virginmobile.in for purchasing Virgin Mobile products and services online.

Virgin Mobile goes online

Richard Branson promoted Virgin Mobile today made all its services including handsets, plans and recharge coupons available online so that customers can get the services without visiting company's sales stores.

The company which has a franchisee tie-up with Tata Teleservices mainly targets Indian youth. The new initiative aims at reaching them who spend a significant chunk of their time online, a company statement said.

"With 44 per cent of the total internet population in India within the age group of 19 to 24 years, it is logical for us to extend our presence to the online space and offer our customers the convenience and comfort of buying Virgin Mobile connection at the click of a button," said Virgin Mobile India's CEO M A Madhusudan.

The company has tied up with Blue Dart to home deliver the phones at the customer's door step. It has also tied up with BillDesk for payment authorisation.

The company also plans to come out with product bundled offers, facility of gifting a phone to friend/family and an option to recharge/top-up online.

Virgin to expand in India

Virgin Mobile India, a 50: 50 joint venture between Tata Teleservices and the UK-based Virgin group, which provides mobile services on the CDMA platform, will continue its focus on the youth segment and will add 150 more cities in its distribution network in the next three months.

"During the last five months we have reached 60 top cities and we will be adding another 150 cities in the next three months," said Mr M.A. Madhusudan, CEO, Virgin Mobile.

The company’s strategy is to address the youth segment with different services and differentiate the brand in the crowded market place.

"It’s early days, but customers have endorsed our services. Over 40 per cent of subscriptions are coming through referrals from our existing customers," he said.

Virgin estimates that there would be over 50 million new youth subscribers added over the next three years and the company expects to take a 10 per cent share of this incremental market, reaching a subscriber base of 5 million by 2010. Of this, the company expects 60 per cent subscription form the top cities.

The five-month-old company is growing at 40 per cent, and claims to have 30 per cent higher average revenue per user than the industry average.

Virgin Mobile is currently offering pre-paid service only. The company is likely to introduce post-paid services shortly.

MTNL inks CDMA deal with IOL Netcom

Following in the footsteps of the TataTeleservices-Virgin Mobile deal, state-owned telecom operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has entered into a CDMA franchise agreement with Mumbai -based IOL Netcom.

MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, has invited bids for its CDMA operations. IOL Netcom, which emerged as the winner in both circles, can scale up to 2 lakh codes (customers) in each circle, according to the agreement.

“We have GSM as well as CDMA services. However, while our GSM services attract about 1 lakh customers every month, the CDMA growth was a little slow, for which we decided to enter into this model,” MTNL CMD RSP Sinha said.

“We had developed the franchise model even before the Tata-Virgin deal came through. Our project got a little delayed, though,” he added.

“Depending on the response that we get from this venture, we will be able to decide whether we should open more codes for IOL Netcom if required,” Sinha said.

IOL Netcom plans to introduce its IOL Mobile brand within 90 days.

According to a company statement, IOL Netcom will also introduce a variety of value added services. IOL Netcom’s CDMA mobile services will offer multi-play services, comprising mobile, data card, desktop CDMA phone, IPTV and broadband services, among others.

Source: business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=333225